Re: Antipassive

Its only a niggle, but 'exist in languages with
ergativity' should read 'exist in languages with
syntactic ergativity' in my opinion. For Example,
Elenyo is morphologically ergative, yet has no
antipassive, mainly because co-referentiallity is
actually displayed by an affix system removing the
need for a pivot relationship etc.

James

 --- J Matthew Pearson <pearson@...>
wrote: > Nik Taylor wrote:
>
> > Antipassives exist in languages with ergativity.
> An antipassive
> > converts the ergative into an absolutive.  It is
> used if the verb has no
> > patient, or to focus on the agent, in much the
> same way that passives
> > are used when there is no agent or to focus on
> patient.  For instance,
> > from Uatakassí:
> > Fakapátas nlakúsal natassáma
> > Hit-past  man-erg  brother-his-abs
> > "The man hit his brother"
> > Sufkapátas  nlakús
> > Hit-AP-past man-abs
> > "The man hit [someone or something]"
> > OR
> > Faguatiátas ku  sufkapátas  nlakús  pikaatúli
> > Fell        and Hit-AP-past man-abs rock-inst
> (instr is used for patient
> > in an AP)
> > "The man fell and hit a rock"
>
> This is sort of beside the point, but it seems odd
> to me that "nlakus" is
> deleted from the first conjunct instead of the
> second one.  Is there any
> particular reason why it's "Faguatiatas ku
> sufkapatas nlakus pikaatuli" and
> not "Faguatiatas nlakus ku sufkapatas pikaatuli"?
> Just curious.  (Forgive
> the absence of diacritics...)
>
> Matt.
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